Okolica szlachecka

In Poland and Lithuania okolica szlachecka or akalica (in Lithuanian) is a kind of estate village (neighbourhood of the nobility), or a complex of several villages of the same first part of the name and different second part. In the past, it was a single settlement, but later it has split, as the property has been divided into several inheritors. Such localities were usually inhabited by yeomanry (drobna szlachta). They are common in the borderland of Mazovia and Podlachia in Poland and in central and north-west part of Lithuania. Many frequent toponymic (often noble) surnames are derived from their names.